The Two Obamas Who Appeared During Health Debate

My latest Capital Journal looks at the two different Presidents Obama who appeared during the health debate:

President Barack Obama, by inclination and experience, has always been half intellectual law professor, half street-smart community organizer. In the long march toward passage of a historic health-care bill, it was the intellectual who started the journey; it was the community organizer who finished it off.

That’s as good a way as any to summarize how Mr. Obama handled the first major, and perhaps defining, issue of his presidency. In the long and tortuous year of unfolding debate, two very different presidents could be seen, much as two different Candidates Obama could be seen during his presidential campaign. It seems highly likely these two different Mr. Obamas will continue to alternate places for the remainder of his term.

At the outset of the health-care saga, it was the Intellectual Obama at the forefront. Cool and above the fray, he was inclined to talk about his desire for a health-care bill that would “bend the cost curve” in the health sector, and about the macroeconomic effect of health-care costs on American economic competitiveness.

In those early weeks and months, he sometimes seemed more to be leading a policy debate than a political brawl. Rather than produce his own bill, he stood back while House and Senate Democrats did so, then offered commentary, analysis and encouragement.

The Intellectual Obama could and would discuss the pros and cons of a government-run public health-insurance option flawlessly, while leaving listeners uncertain whether he really thought including one in the legislation was a good idea. He was as likely to talk about why America needed health-care changes as much why individual Americans did, and prone to explain why the health-care industry saw a need for change just as much as consumers did.

The Community Organizer Obama—the one who talks more about people than policy—was always present as well, of course. But it wasn’t until last fall that he began to eclipse the other half of the presidential persona.